


Unbalanced Love

by torikasa



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Romance, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-11
Packaged: 2018-04-29 18:58:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5138924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torikasa/pseuds/torikasa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even though she’s with the boy of her dreams now, why is it that every time she looks at Chat Noir, her heart aches?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cause and Affection

It is absolutely insane for her to return to such a place, yet there she stands in front of the Agreste mansion, clad in her usual old outfit, with an envelope clasped in a pair of shaky hands. It has been years since her crush on Adrien has blossomed into something more than trivial puppy love, and even then, the same sentiments linger. Her heart aches for his attention, and regardless of what she does, he never seems to notice her.

Well, today, on the first day of her fourth and final year of high school, she has decided that enough is enough. In her hands is a letter that explains the vigor of her all the emotions she has bottled up inside her all this time. She had even made sure to sign it, complete with a heart embellishment next to her signature. Surely, after all this time, she has mustered enough courage to at least give him the letter. It is as simple as placing the envelope in the mail bin, and she would be off on her merry way.

Hesitantly, she rings the doorbell, awaiting an answer from the secretary. Unfortunately, after minutes of waiting, there was still no answer, prompting her to ring the doorbell a second time, thereafter scolding herself for being a nuisance. Maybe this is fate’s way of saying this is a bad idea after all…

Finally, after a few more minutes of nervous waiting, she hears the gate doors open. Confused, she looks at the figure coming out of the mansion and audibly gasps. She recognizes those blond tufts and bright green eyes anywhere.

She feels something lodged in her throat, the pit of her stomach catering to a plethora of butterflies by now. The envelope in her hand accidentally falls out from all her shaking, and she hastily picks it up. When she tries to stand back up, her gaze wanders over to a hand placed right under her face. Without thinking, she grabs at it, and it lifts her up, and she suddenly finds herself trapped in an ocean of emeralds.

“Marinette,” came a smooth voice, snapping her back into reality. “What are you doing here?”

“I, uh, A-Adrien…!” Her voice comes out like a squeak. She clasps her hands on her lips, hearing the blond’s sweet giggle resonate in the air. Just hearing him laugh at her makes her blush even more than she already was, but nevertheless, she tries to calm herself down as best as she could, taking in deep breaths and mentally telling herself that everything is okay. “Adrien, this is for you,” she half-yelled, pushing the envelope into his chest.

With a heartwarming smile, Adrien tells her thanks and gently pries the note out of her iron hands. He giggles again, making Marinette completely explode.

“Should I read it right now?”

“N-no!” the dark-haired girl replies too briskly as she tries to calm herself down again. “I mean, yes, b-but then I’ll have to leave.” She looks to the side. “Forever.”

“Forever?” Another chuckle. “You’re one funny girl, Marinette.”

He begins to open the letter, and when he does, Marinette is already in position to bolt out of there. Noticing her nervous demeanor, Adrien gives her one of his famous smiles and motions for her to come closer. Marinette, against her better judgment, does exactly as he says and stands next to him, her face nearing fever-like temperatures.

“ _Mon cher Adrien,_ ” he begins softly, almost a whisper.

The dark-haired girl, flustered, starts mentally screaming. Why in the world is he reading this out loud, she thinks to herself as she starts biting on the tip of her thumbnail.

He doesn’t read the rest of the letter out loud, which makes Marinette even more nervous. The entire time, Adrien has a small smile on his face, every now and then his eyes shifting towards hers in an attempt to make eye contact. She always immediately looks away, though, not able to tell whether he is enjoying this out of ill intent or out of genuine curiosity. Considering it is Adrien, after all—sweet, loving, thoughtful Adrien—she opts and hopes for the latter.

Finally, after what seems like a grueling century, he closes the letter and tucks it back into the envelope. He then looks at the short girl and locks eyes with her intensely, his lips a simple firm line. Panic begins to dominate Marinette’s mind, a plethora of possible reactions attacking her head all at once. The one that seems to stick to her mind is complete and utter rejection, followed swiftly with tantalizing laughter and torment. Even if this is sweet, sweet Adrien, she doesn’t exactly know everything about him, and it’s not completely out of the question that he would react with torturous ridicule.

Except, when she finally manages to gather her courage again and reciprocates Adrien, staring straight into those beautiful green eyes, she finds nothing but genuine compassion, and it makes her heart do flips.

“ _Ma ch_ _é_ _re Marinette,_ ” he begins slowly, mirroring her letter. She gulps, her mind in a battle of wanting to hear his reaction and not wanting to. “Thank you for telling me your feelings.”

Oh, here we go, Marinette thinks, bracing herself for the worst.

“It… well, simply put… it saves me the trouble from telling you myself.”

Marinette blinks, then blinks, then blinks again. She sees now that Adrien has broken his gaze on her and is now fixated on the ground, a tinge of pink painted on his cheeks. The same color graces her own face as she finds herself eyeing the ground too, her lips quivering in both happiness and nervousness. If she understands correctly… Adrien, the boy of her dreams, actually reciprocates her feelings?

Simultaneously, they look up from the ground and look straight into each other’s eyes again, causing the pink in their cheeks to slowly turn into a rosy red color. They both open their mouths as if to say something, then close them again out of respect for one another. Upon the realization of their awkwardness, they both laugh softly, reveling in each other’s nervousness around the other.

Adrien is the first to stop laughing, brushing his hand against Marinette’s cheeks. The girl could have sworn her head burst at that very moment. “Marinette,” he begins softly as she melts into his hands. “Sorry about… this. I’m not used to any of this, but I’d just like to say that I… well, I mirror every single one of the feelings you wrote in your letter…”

“I… I do too,” she says awkwardly, mentally slapping herself after she had realized what she just said.

Adrien chuckles, then continues on with a serious, straight face. “Marinette, will you go out with me?”

Marinette’s heart stops. Her lips start quivering. She knows exactly how to respond, but something is lodged in her throat again, and she can’t seem to function correctly anymore. She feels as if she can faint at any moment now. Fortunately, Tikki, who is hiding in her purse as per usual, nudges her from inside the bag, bringing her back to reality. In front of her, Adrien is looking intently, a bit of nervousness in his eyes from Marinette’s answer even though it should be obvious.

With a sigh to calm her nerves, Marinette is miraculously able to take Adrien’s hands in her and say, “yes, yes I do,” before planting a quick peck on his cheek.

Adrien blushes furiously. Marinette couldn’t have even believed she was able to do any of this, but somehow, she felt a little bit of Ladybug confidence inside her at that moment. The confidence, however, had ceased, and she in turn turned bright red—even brighter than any of the moments before—before looking away and mumbling something about being late to class.

The blond boy nods in agreement as he mentions about taking his limousine to school together, and with little hesitation, Marinette agrees. Both of them enter the limousine and drive off to school together, not looking at each other all the way to school, but their tell-tale grins plastered on their faces show exactly how ecstatic they both are now that their feelings are finally recognized by the other.

 

* * *

 

During class, Alya constantly shoots her best friend suspicious looks. Marinette consistently waves them off, whispering to her that she’ll tell the brunette after class, but impatient Alya seems to want to know now. Meanwhile, Marinette is fixated on the back of her new boyfriend’s— _boyfriend_ , she sighs dreamily—head, watching the way his blond tufts wisps this way and that with every subtle motion he makes. Even though watching Adrien is a usual pastime for Marinette, the fact they they’re together now makes watching her feel a lot more different, because she knows he isn’t a distant dream anymore.

She notices Nino out of the corner of her eye pestering Adrien in a similar fashion as Alya is pestering her and giggles to herself at how amusing it is to watch her boyfriend—wow, she is starting to get used to saying this so often now!—flick Nino’s notes away, completing shutting down any attempts at getting information out of him during class. After all, if either of them knew now, there would be a lot of surprised yelling, which isn’t really an ideal situation for anyone considering how strict their teacher is. All of them would probably end up in detention if that was the case!

Soon, Alya, Nino, and everyone else will know, though, and they will live their happily ever after, and Marinette finds so much joy in the fact that it was all thanks to her newfound courage this morning that all of this is happening. She should be as confident as her superhero persona all the time if the results are always going to be as joyous as being Adrien’s _girlfriend_.

With a wistful sigh, she continues to stare at the blond’s head, giving a sheepish smile when he suddenly turns around and waves at her, a perfect little smile gracing his lips that’s as lopsided and shy as hers.

 

* * *

 

“Girl, shut up!” Alya’s mouth is wide agape as she continually rocks her best friend back and forth in disbelief. Marinette smiles sheepishly, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. “I’m so proud of you! After all this time… you finally managed to tell him? And the kicker here is, he likes you back? That’s just way too good to be true!”

“I know,” Marinette says. “I can’t believe it either. I still feel like this is a dream, but then I pinch myself and realize it isn’t. It’s absolutely amazing…” She sighs dreamily, looking around for Adrien. When she spots him, she realizes he’s been looking at her the entire time, causing the tips of her ears to heat up. He waves happily towards her, Nino smirking knowingly at the two before the boys start making their way towards Alya and Marinette.

Alya is waving frantically at the boys, gushing at how it’s perfect that they’re finally together.Nino is waving back, gushing all the same. All the while, both Marinette and Adrien are completely flushed, unable to look at each other despite desperately wanting to.

“So you’ve heard the grand news?” Nino asks with a cheeky grin. “These two lovebirds are finally together. Who would’ve thought?”

“Tell us,” Alya begins, a sly smirk on her face. “Have you guys done anything yet?”

With that, the couple simultaneously get even ruddier, their eyes wide open in shock. “N-no, we haven’t even been dating for that long!” Marinette blurts out, waving her hands in front of her face to cover up the heat in her cheeks. “We’re taking it slow! I guess…!”

“Y-yeah,” came Adrien’s expeditious agreement, nodding his head furiously. Meanwhile, Nino and Alya are beside themselves with loud guffaws, snorting and using each other as support or else they would fall over from laughter.

Marinette continues to stare at the two chortling idiots when she feels soft fingers brush against the palm of her hand. She looks to her side and sees Adrien sending her a look that is either signaling “let’s get out of here while we can” or “I need to go use the restroom”. The dark-haired girl isn’t sure which one Adrien is trying to imply, but she nods her head in agreement anyway, and in a split second, she founds her wrist being wrapped by a strong yet gentle hand, pulling her away from the scene.

Once the pair is finally away from the laughing duo, Adrien, in-between short breaths, starts chuckling himself. “Those two sure find amusement in our being together.”

“Th-they sure are,” Marinette stutters as she mentally slaps herself. Even though she’s finally dating him, her dream boy, she still finds it difficult to speak. Her knees are shaking just being around his presence. Talking to him is a great struggle, and she can hear Tiki giggling from inside her purse, bemused at the dark-haired girl’s inability to even talk properly to her new boyfriend.

But hey, they haven’t been together for long. It’s only normal to feel nervous around him during the honeymoon period of dating.

As if noticing her discomfort, Adrien tries to remedy it by placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. The action only proves to make the dark-haired girl even more uncomfortable, making Adrien retract with an apologetic look on his face. “Uh, sorry, Marinette. I… I’m not good at this whole dating thing, you know…”

“N-neither am I!” she blurts out all of a sudden, her eyes wide. “I’ve never really dated anyone before…”

“Same here,” he says, seeming to feel a bit more comfortable with the information in mind. Marinette, too, feels slightly more at ease now that she knows he is as inexperienced with dating as she is. They can learn and mess up together, she thinks to herself, giving her many thanks to fate for Adrien being as new to this whole dating thing as she is.

Adrien looks at her with a smile, whipping out his smartphone from his bag. “By the way, I don’t think I have your number. Let’s exchange.”

Nervously, Marinette laughs, mortified by the fact that she realizes she actually does have his number. She quickly takes her phone and pretends to type in his phone number as he slowly says each number out loud. She then sheepishly replies with her own number, and afterward, Adrien only grins at her as she feels her phone vibrate. She turns her phone on and almost faints at the message.

_Hey there, my dear lady ;)_

 

* * *

 

Tonight, patrol is silent.

Usually, Chat Noir makes silly attempts at flirtation towards her to lighten up the mood, yet there is none of that tonight. There is some hidden tension between the two, and even though Marinette is ecstatic about the recent happenings with her dream boy and everything, Ladybug herself feels a tinge of sadness. She can’t quite understand why she would miss the constant flirting from Chat Noir, because she always tries to deny him anyway. It must be because over the years, she found herself being used to it.

Yeah, that’s it.

Ladybug makes sure not to look for too long, but she begins to examine Chat Noir. He is as he’s always been, clad in his dark suit, blond tufts wildly hanging out, bright green eyes narrowed in concentration. She notices the way his chest heaves in and out slowly, calmly, whereas his posture and body language seems tense. She raises an eyebrow at this revelation, her mouth opening to speak. Chat Noir, however, opens his mouth at the same time, and they both ask the same thing they’re both thinking of: “Are you okay?”

Ladybug looks away just as Chat Noir begins to look at her. He clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth, his mouth a thin line. “I’m… fine. I’ve just been thinking a lot lately. What about you?”

“I’m fine. Just curious why you’re not acting like your usual self… and stuff.”

With that, one of Chat Noir’s eyebrows lift in amusement, a small smirk replacing his worried frown. “Miss my affection, my Lady?”

Flustered, she looks away, nodding her head in disagreement. “No, it’s not that. It just bugs me out when you’re so silent. It’s not you. Besides…” She pauses for a second before adding, “I… I have a boyfriend now.”

Ladybug expects a sad reaction from Chat Noir. She expects him to cry to her, pestering her with questions of who this boy is and what he has that the great Chat Noir doesn’t. Except, none of that happens. What came out of his mouth catches the girl off-guard, almost causing her to stumble off of the building if it weren’t for her quick reflexes. “I have someone now too.”

She sucks in a breath. “Oh, you flirty kitty finally settled down?” she teases, though she feels a pang of regret and sadness stinging in her chest. “Who’s this desperate girl?”

Chat Noir laughs at her, waving her off. “She’s a wonderful, beautiful girl who asked _me_ first, and I just-so-happened to reciprocate her feelings. By the way,” he says, his voice getting quieter. “I want to ask you something.”

“Shoot.”

“Is it okay if I reveal my identity to her?”

The very question shocks her, her face scrunching up in disapproval. “Well, it’s ultimately your decision, but I don’t think it’s a wise idea. At least, not yet. Wait for a while. If you’ve recently just started going out with her, then that means you haven’t built any trust yet. Just wait until you feel she’s trustworthy enough.”

“I think she _is_ trustworthy,” he argues, defiant.

She simply sighs. “You don’t know her at all. Everyone has different sides to them that no one else knows about but themselves. You should know that better than anyone else.”

“But keeping such a secret for so long…” His voice is really low, almost vulnerable.

Ladybug sighs again. “It’s just not the right time. You have to be patient about all this. Next thing you know, she’ll betray you and blurt out all your secrets.”

He is hesitant in responding, but when he does, he just smiles at her. The smile piques her interest because the way his lips curve look so familiar… Like she had seen it all day… But she decides to let the thought drift into the recesses of her mind to think about later. “You’re right,” he says confidently. “I’ll wait to gain her trust. You give good advice, my Lady.”

She sighs one last time before standing up, signaling her prompt leave. “And you’re a good listener, kitty. See ya later.”

She hears her partner breathe out a goodbye, but she doesn’t look back. She clenches her chest and tries to take in deep breaths, though even then, the pain won’t stop. When she is safe back at home, lying down in her bed, she blames the sudden heartache on the fact that she hasn’t heard Adrien’s voice in a while.

She decides to text him tonight to remedy her broken heart.


	2. Knight in Shining Amour

The sound of his all-too-familiar ringtone resounds in the air. He quickly fumbles around his pockets to find his smartphone vibrating against his hands, so he turns it on and finds a message from his girlfriend. He feels the corners of his lips automatically curling up into a huge grin upon seeing her name, a little ladybug emoticon right next to it (along with a kissy face emoticon, but he is too embarrassed to admit that he has such a mushy, gushy smiley next to her name).

_whats shakin bacon? :)_

After reading the message, he starts chuckling softly, imagining his girlfriend, all red-faced as usual, fumbling around with her phone, wondering what exactly to say and accidentally sending this message. Just thinking about how embarrassed and how she’s probably burying her face in her pillow is enough to make him laugh even louder than he initially intends to. Quickly, he covers his mouth but otherwise continues to giggle to himself.

His fingers then start navigating the keyboard on his phone like an expert, though his long nails from the costume prevent him from accurately spelling out certain words. Fortunately, he thinks, autocorrect is there to save the day.

_Hey, just patrolling the_ —

With widened eyes, he deletes his entire message, Ladybug’s words managing to worm its way to his mind again.  _It’s just not the right time_. He mentally slaps himself for almost going against Ladybug’s advice, albeit on accident. He retypes a new message, something much more simple and maybe a little bit flirty considering he feels a bit confident in his superhero persona right now, and puts his phone back in his pockets, planning on returning back home.

During his parkour adventure towards his mansion, he revels in the bright Parisian lights glowing around him. It reminds him of all the times he and Ladybug go on patrol most every night. Ladybug—once the object of his complete and utter affection, but he thinks, she is just a friend now. Ladybug once told him that romance shouldn’t interfere with superhero business, and with that, he respectfully forces himself to fall out of love with Ladybug. As he does, he remembers slowly falling for one shy classmate over the course of his high school years: Marinette Dupain-Cheng. It was a slow romance that started off with a blush after seeing her smallish smile and, miraculously, ended up with them together somehow. He himself had been under turmoil for a year now, wondering just how exactly he was to ask such a shy girl out—a girl who could barely even look at him in the eye! Fortunately, Marinette asking him this morning saved him from his struggles, and he is glad for that. He has a little bit of luck on his side every now and then.

Still… the pang of regret he feels when he is around Ladybug confuses him. He tries to keep silent in order to not flirt as he always does, but sometimes, it comes out of pure habit. Despite his flirtatious demeanor around the red-clad superhero, he realizes he only has the courage to flirt around her, and despite her constant disapprovals of his affections, he somehow misses everything. He misses his Lady, but he has to remind himself that he has a new lady now, and that’s Marinette, and he’s happy.

Right…?

Adrien lets out a long sigh as he pushes the complicated thoughts to the back of his mind. His transformation wears off right as he enters his bedroom through the window. He plops down on his bed, his tired bones finally feeling at ease after a very long day. He checks his phone and finds a couple of messages. Some (err, a lot actually…) from Chloé, some others from Nino, and two from his beloved Marinette…

He blushes again when he sees her name. Two messages in a row? He feels so flattered. His chest is thumping really loudly right now as his thumb wavers over her name. He then presses it and reads the messages one after another eagerly, his eyes darting left to right.

_im just doing some physics homework. its such a drag! im horrible at physics help me…_

He chuckles, suddenly getting the bright idea of tutoring her. He thinks it would not only help her succeed, but they would be able to have study dates. That’s a thing couples do, right? He isn’t sure, but he feels abnormally giddy about the brilliant idea.

Before he texts to offer to go on study dates together, he remembers there being a second message, so he opens it up curiously, his breath stopping dead in its tracks from the sweet message.

_i gotta go to sleep. night night <3_

A… a heart? Were they far enough in their relationship to be using hearts in text messages? Again, he isn’t sure, but he surely doesn’t mind. Just the simple gesture puts him completely over the moon as he rapidly types his reply:  _Goodnight, my fair lady. See you in my dreams <3_.

The blond then tucks himself in his bed and sighs dreamily, hoping he really does see his shy, sweet Marinette in his dreams…

 

* * *

 

“I’m sorry!” she yells out worriedly, panic dripping in her voice. Her cheeks look like they had just been pinched, being all puffy and ruddy, her eyes darting towards her best girl friend with ill intention. “Alya came over last night for a surprise sleepover and stole my phone… and texted you all that last night…”

Adrien lets out a disappointed noise, a frown forming on his face. “I didn’t mind all those texts,” he says bluntly, stepping closer to Marinette who seems to only retract backwards. His frown deepens as he places a hand on her shoulder, eliciting a squeak from the poor girl. “It actually made me really happy, you know? We’re a couple now so we should try to be more comfortable with each other…”

“S-sorry,” she says solemnly, gulping. She looks up at him with the biggest blues he has ever seen, and he finds it hard to control his thoughts at the moment. Cute, adorable, huggable—all things that are currently swimming through his mind, and he wants oh-so-badly to just caress the small girl in his arms and never let go.

Instead, he opts, with a sly smile, to grab her waist and start tickling her. Eyes bugging out in shock, Marinette, in-between fits of laughter, tries to push him away but to no avail in her weakened state. Adrien continues, relishing in the hearty laughter from Marinette, a side he has never seen before. He wants to see more sides of her like this. “Don’t look at me with those sad eyes again or I’ll come and tickle you like this,” he warns playfully, ceasing his tickle attack.

After the dark-haired girl had calmed down, she plants her hands on her hips and looks up at Adrien in faux anger. “That wasn’t fair,” she says with a small pout. Another side he has never seen before. Something inside him kicks in and he suddenly has a dire need to find all these secret sides of Marinette that he has never seen before. Anything other than the usual soft-spoken, stuttering girl that she had portrayed herself to be in front of him.

“Say,” he begins as she quickly settles back down to her natural, calm self. “Are you having trouble with physics?”

She stammers, sheepishly admitting, “Um, well, kinda…”

“How about we go on, uh… study dates? I mean, if you want,” he quickly adds in an attempt to not make it awkward, but judging from the girl’s taken aback expression, he seems to have failed and actually made it even more awkward than it should have been. Oh, just his luck… “I… I just thought it would be good for us to get to know each other more and help you out with some homework at the same time.”

“It… sounds like a splendid idea.” A small smile forms on her lips, and Adrien internally faints in bliss at how angelic his girlfriend looks at this very moment. “So your house or mine? My house is kinda messy…”

“Wanna play rock, paper, scissors to decide?” Adrien suggests. Marinette lifts a thin eyebrow at the childish suggestion, but nevertheless, she gives him a small smirk—another new side of Marinette!—before settling into the proper position, a fist placed precariously atop the palm of her other hand.

Adrien mirrors her position and they both chant the name of the game before settling with a respective sign. The blond looks at Marinette’s fist and realizes he had won. He mentally cheers in victory, surprised at his unusual luck. He usually loses any luck-based game, he thinks to himself ruefully.

“So, your house, huh…” Marinette drawls out, looking down with a sheepish grin.

“Actually,” Adrien interrupts, smirking smugly. “Winner gets to decide, and I decide to go to your house. No buts, okay?”

For a second, it looks as if the dark-haired girl is about to argue, but she seems to decide that it’s better not to and just rolls her eyes. “F-fine.” She quickly adds under her breath, “You’re so childish.”

Adrien smirks, a bit of his superhero personality coming out at the moment. “I know.”

 

* * *

 

After school, Adrien finds his girlfriend outside, waiting patiently. When he yells out her name, she turns and gives him a cute smile. He rushes towards her only to be stopped by none other than Chloé, who is giving him the foulest grimace he’s ever seen on anyone ever.

“You never answered my text messages yesterday,” the blonde girl says furiously. Then, she points at the dark-haired girl behind herself, her frown only deepening. “What’s with this whole dating _her_?” She says it with so much venom that the only way Adrien can respond is with a deep frown of his own.

“Chloé,” he begins slowly, trying to gently push her off of him. He eyes Marinette smiling at him understandingly, and he sighs in relief that his girlfriend isn’t the jealous type. “Look. I like Marinette. I’ve liked her for a long time now. Please just let it go?”

The blonde lets out a huff of anger, her eyes squinted in a cold glare. “Whatever. But you won’t last long with her, and you’ll come crawling back to me, got it?”

“I… was never with you in the first place…” he says softly, looking away from her menacing looks. Chloé finally retracts her body from him and gives him one final huff of angry air before leaving the school grounds. Marinette then slowly walks up to the flustered blond boy and pats him on the shoulder encouragingly, making him suddenly perk up from the soft, warm touches.

“Hey, how about we get going?” she suggests. “My house isn’t too far from here so we can just walk.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he says with a grin. He finds it endearing how Marinette has started to open up to him and has slowly stopped stuttering all the time. During class, they had been exchanging looks with each other the entire time, and Adrien was even feeling cocky enough to send a wily wink her way which made her entire face look like a cherry tomato. He internally chuckles to himself, thinking just how easily he can elicit a wild reaction from the otherwise shy girl, very much unlike how the only reaction he can get from Ladybug is denial.

But oh well, he’s happy now.

As the pair is walking towards the Dupain-Cheng household, Adrien can’t help but notice how lonely Marinette’s smallish hands look. He taps the side of his thigh as he wonders if he is overstepping their boundaries as a newfound couple by whisking her hand away. Still, they have kissed—not on the lips, mind you—each other before, so maybe hand holding wasn’t completely out of the question?

Before he can ponder on the topic any further, however, an aromatic smell of bread and pastries tickles his nose. He looks up and is faced with the front of a bakery. Inside, he can clearly see Marinette’s mother tending to a customer at the moment. He muses just how similar the mother and daughter pair look and blushes at the prospect of his Marinette turning out as beautiful as her mother.

No, no, save that thought for later, Adrien, he thinks, mentally scolding himself.

The pair enters the bakery and is greeted by the gentle voice of Mrs. Dupain-Cheng, who is currently eyeing him with sparkling interest. “Who’s this, dear?” she asks curiously.

“Um, his name is Adrien. He’s, well…”

“Her boyfriend,” Adrien finishes for her rather too proudly. Marinette gives him a shocked look but otherwise nods her head in agreement.

“Uh, yeah… we’re going on a study date…”

Her mother giggles softly to herself before telling them to have fun. Her daughter is visibly flustered by her mother’s possible insinuations, but Adrien finds humor in the fact that Marinette is just so perturbed by the most trivial things. Even though he always sees her act like this, he still enjoys seeing her blush like there’s no tomorrow, because it’s usually around him that she does it and it makes him think that her blush is all his—that this particular emotion he’s feeling whenever she blushes is caused by him and him alone.

The two walk upstairs and stand in front of Marinette’s door. He examines the front of her door and notices all the cute designs and hearts plastered on. Marinette, who then stands in front of it and obstructs his view from any further examination, looks up at him and says, “Okay, this is my room. Don’t snoop around, okay?”

“Promise I won’t,” he says wholeheartedly, sticking out his pinky finger to her. She stares at it with a confused expression on her face before wrapping her own pinky finger around his. He smiles softly and wraps his own pinky around hers, completing the pact between them. With that, Marinette opens the door to his room and all of a sudden, the aromatic bakery smell is replaced by a faint mixture of vanilla and strawberries.

He enters her room and is immediately intrigued by his surroundings. Her room is filled with sewing equipment and fashionable clothing. Her passion for her art trade is really marvelous, he thinks, and it somewhat makes him jealous considering he himself doesn’t have anything he’s particularly passionate about besides donning his superhero persona and being free, but you can’t make a career out of that exactly…

Marinette makes her way to her closet where she pulls out a small plastic table covered in scratches but still looking stable. She plops it down in the middle of her room and sits down next to him, motioning for Adrien to sit with her. The blond promptly takes a seat right next to his girlfriend, feeling their knees touching.

“So, teacher, where do we begin?” she teases.

Adrien cocks an eyebrow. “I expect to be called Mr. Agreste, thank you very much.”

With that, he sees her roll her eyes. “Okay, _Mr. Agreste_. What should we start with?”

From his messenger back, he retrieves a stack of worksheets that he had prepared the morning of, snickering at the horrified look on his girlfriend’s face. Mission accomplished. “Let’s start with these.”

And with that, the two work on the various worksheets Adrien had printed off, the blonde helping the dark-haired girl whenever he founds her stammering or groaning in frustration. The two even engaged in casual conversation every now and then to break the comfortable silence between them. Adrien had learned so much about his girlfriend that he never would have known. She speaks not only French and Chinese, but a respectable amount of English too. She knows karate and has been practicing ever since she was young and has been on her way to a black belt. She has a mole on the side of her thigh. Her favorite color is red. She really wants a pet hamster named Bijou. Just about everything he could imagine of asking her, he now knows the answer to, and he wishes he could write them all down in his mind as to not forget, but he will somehow have to manage and believe in his memory to take in all the information and remember every single detail.

Just when he’s about to ask her another question, he hears faint screaming from outside. As if on instinct, he stands up, looking at his ring as it glistens under the room’s lights. Marinette gives him a questioning look, so his mind scrambles to find a convincing enough excuse to go outside and kick some butt.

“Um, I need some fresh air?”

“…alright…” she says slowly, continuing working on her physics homework in without questioning him any further.

He sighs in relief that his excuse somehow worked. He says a “see ya in a bit” before running down the stairs and going outside where he sees a strange figure looming above him. Quickly, he darts towards a dark alley before looking at his ring again, yelling out his signature cries in order to transform into the one and only Chat Noir.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't intend to write this so quickly, but I was so happy with all the positive reviews and kudos from everyone! I just had to get this chapter done as soon as possible! I hope you guys continue to enjoy! I know it's really slow right now, but I promise I'm building up to something good.


	3. Puppy Denial

With a satisfied grin, Marinette scrapes her pen against the paper with one final stroke before setting the pen down, reveling in her ability to finish a problem all by herself without Adrien’s help. Not that Adrien helping her was a bad thing; in fact, she very much enjoyed the closeness of his warm breath against her cheek and the way he gently touches her hand to reassure her that she is doing well. Every single touch from her boyfriend sets off fireworks in her stomach. It’s so unnerving but gives her a boost of adrenaline that is almost like swinging around the city as Ladybu—

All of a sudden, she hears a loud screech outside. She runs towards her window and watches a black-clad figure jumping from rooftop to rooftop, chasing after a shadowy silhouette.

The girl scrambles for her purse, which she finds lying on her bed. Tikki has already struggled out of the purse and bounces up into Marinette’s outstretched hands. She then says her signature catchphrase in order to transform into her superhero persona, a bright glow emitting from her body as her suit magically appears in place of her civilian clothing. After her transformation sequence is over, she opens her window and jumps out, landing gracefully on her feet.

She then remembers Adrien being outside and fearfully looks around, but he is nowhere to be found. Relief washes over her face but is immediately replaced by worry as she wonders where exactly he could have gone. Maybe the villain had gotten to him?

She shakes off the thought and refocuses her attention on the situation at hand, looking around her surroundings to find any sign of the shadowy figure or her partner. Immediately, she notices a certain kitty cat on top of a red roof. She uses her yo-yo to maneuver around the buildings to get to him, criss-crossing this way and that, until she finally finds the red roof.

“A little late, Ladybug,” he responds in an uncharacteristically serious tone. “This guy is tough.”

“Nothing we can't handle,” Ladybug says confidently, twirling her yo-yo in one hand. She stares intently at the figure, examining every curve and feature: tall and slim, almost like a model, with dark hair flowing elegantly behind her and stitches covering the entirety of her body. The figure never speaks and instead continually lunges towards the superhero duo, her movements almost too quick for even the pair's quick reflexes. Stamina draining, Ladybug inevitably resorts to using her special Lucky Charm move, a red, black-spotted megaphone landing right into her hands.

She eyes it curiously, Chat Noir grunting beside her. “I'll buy you some time.” And with that, he dashes towards the stitched girl and starts throwing haphazard punches and kicks, only to have them all expertly reflected. He lets out an annoyed noise before continuing the fight, this time with his silver baton.

Ladybug looks around at her surroundings for any viable solution. For some reason, however, her mind is clouded by worried thoughts of Adrien, causing her to not be able to think straight at all. Where in the world could he possibly be? She wonders if Adrien had gone back home or was hurt by the demonic stitched girl, but just thinking about that makes her completely furious.

“Ladybug, any time now!” comes Chat Noir's worried voice as his baton is knocked out of his hands and lands nowhere near either of them.

But she can't think straight, she thinks, desperately looking around for any inspiration on how to use the megaphone. But nothing comes to her, and she is left just standing there, worrying about Adrien and now worrying about her relationship with Chat Noir. Even during the toughest of fights, he never fails to slyly call her his Lady, so why now, of all times, does he not call her by the affectionate nickname? Is she thinking too hard about this or is there really a deeper meaning behind Chat's different attitude towards her lately?

She scoffs and throws the megaphone down, readying her yo-yo to fight. She sees Chat Noir flying across the sky and crashing towards the roof, landing with a loud thud. She takes a short glance to see if he is at least still conscious and notices that he is, so she continues to lunge towards the enemy, attempting to use her weapon to lasso in the figure.

Her attack is deflected and returned to her, the string wrapping around her lithe body. She recoils in shock as she sees herself falling down, her surroundings suddenly slowing down. She sees and is aware of everything: the way the villain is laughing with no mercy, the way Chat Noir is rushing towards her with outstretched arms, the way she isn't moving at all as if she was completely frozen in a state of shock.

She braces for impact and feels her back fall against a warm body. She is cradled by Chat Noir, who isn't looking at her at all or asking if she's okay and is instead focused on the villain flying towards them.

Said villain magically makes several needles appear from thin air, and they are all automatically aimed at her. Her body tenses as she desperately frees herself from the string wrapped around herself. With the help of her partner, she is able to be freed before the needles start darting towards them. She pushes Chat Noir aside and begins to expertly dodge every single one of the needles.

Except one.

One that pierces through her right hand.

One that causes her to scream out in agony.

One that is poisoned and causes her to faint on the floor.

The last thing she hears is stentorian cackles and her superhero name being yelled in an all too familiar voice...

Adrien...?

 

* * *

 

Black. All she sees is black.

It's not a scary darkness. It's surprisingly warm and comforting. She lets the ebony velvet wrap around her like a blanket as she cuddles against it.

But then, the warmth dissipates into coldness, and she finds herself staring into brilliant green eyes. They are hard and calculating, staring at her as if she was a lab experiment. She immediately recognizes those eyes belonging to Chat Noir, her one and only partner, but the way he is looking at her is so foreign that it makes her gasp in horror. He is glaring right at her, the rest of his body save for his face engulfed in the same cold darkness that makes her shiver. Seeing the way he looks at her with such disdain makes her shiver even more.

He starts mouthing words that don't seem like they belong to any language, but for some reason, she understands him nonetheless.

I hate you.

You're pathetic.

I wish you would just die.

She wants to scream at him. She wants, oh so badly, to ask him what's wrong and what she can do to fix their relationship. But she can't find her own voice, and she is left to just stare at this epitome of hatred towards her, tears slowly collecting at the corners of her eyes, and... and—

She suddenly jolts awake, her eyes rapidly blinking to clear up her vision. The first thing she sees is a blank wall, slightly cracked but otherwise stable. She looks around her and finds a side table with a plain, modern lamp atop it and blinds on her other side. There's a black-clad figure sitting down beside the bed she's in, his head hidden behind his arms.

Chat Noir.

“Chat?” She notices that her voice is weak and vulnerable, something very unlike Ladybug. Chat Noir's head perks up, and he immediately looks at her. Except he isn't really looking because he has a bandage wrapped tightly around his head, seemingly obstructing his vision. “...Chat?” she asks again, unsure of what's happening right now.

“Ladybug? Are you okay?” His voice is soft and filled with worry, the complete opposite of the Chat Noir in her nightmare.

“What's going on? Why is your head all bandaged up? Where are we?”

He lets out a sigh and sits on the side of the bed, not looking at her at all. Again. She feels a pang in her chest but chooses to ignore it. “We're at a hotel right now. I rented a room so you could get some rest. I, well… uh… I sucked the poison out,” he says almost too quietly, shaking his head. “And I bandaged your hand up too. I tried looking for the akuma, but it seems like she's disappeared. We can go out later to try and find her. She's a dangerous one.”

She frowns. “And the bandages around your head? Are you hurt?”

He gives a halfhearted laugh. “Oh, no. I'm just using it as a blindfold so I don't see what you look like when you're not Ladybug.”

Her eyes are wide as she feels around herself. She realizes she's wearing her usual clothing and isn't wearing a mask, and the sudden realization makes her squeak in horror. "Oh no! You didn't see anything, right? Please tell me you didn't see anything!"

He laughs, a genuine one this time. “Don't worry. I respect you too much for that, Ladybug.”

There it is again.

_Ladybug._

Why does hearing her own name pain her so much?

She grimaces, looking away from him. “Promise?”

“Yes, of course.”

“...pinky promise?”

He turns around upon hearing that and flashes a reassuring grin at her as he extends his arm and pulls out his pinky. She wraps her own pinky around his and finds herself suddenly missing the warmth his body emanates when he's around her so closely. Now he feels like a distant memory.

She frowns at herself. She had said it herself before: romance shouldn't interfere with superhero business, but she refuses to believe that she has any kind of affectionate sentiments towards Chat Noir other than the love and care of a superhero acquaintance. She has Adrien now, her dream boy, so why should she care if Chat Noir doesn't flirt with her anymore? She should be ecstatic that he finally ceased his silly little flirtations.

Yet, she feels oddly... empty.

Interrupting her thoughts, Chat Noir says, “It's getting late. We should start heading home. Need me to escort you?”

Marinette looks at him, her chest feeling tight. “No.”

_Wait, are you crazy? Say yes!_

“I don't need any help.”

_Yes, you do. You need him._

_You want him._

“Well, if you say so. Stay safe and call me if you get into trouble.” With one small smile, he sets off out of the window and into the night sky.

She wistfully stares as his figure fades into the background. She then thinks about giving her unnecessary thoughts a stern talking to before setting off out of the hotel herself.

But before that, she looks down at her bandaged hand and brings it up to her face. A familiar warmth lingers on it, and she stays like that for a while, the pangs in her chest thumping louder and harder with each passing second.

 

* * *

 

“Oh, I got bit by a dog while walking yesterday,” she explains nervously, forcing a laugh out of her throat. “It still hurts.”

Alya examines her best friend’s bandaged hand once more before letting the subject go. The brunette then turns her attention to Nino and Adrien who had just walked in the classroom. Marinette hides her hand behind herself, waving at the two with her other hand.

“Sorry about yesterday,” Adrien says when he makes it to his seat, looking straight into Marinette’s eyes with the sincerest, most apologetic eyes she has ever seen. “I think I was attacked by the akuma when I went outside. I don’t remember much of what happened, but I woke up in my room so I think Ladybug and Chat Noir saved me.”

Well, Ladybug certainly did no such thing as she had problems of her own, she thinks to herself, sighing out loud. She still can’t believe she almost risked both her and Chat Noir’s lives just because she was too caught up in thinking about Adrien as well as Chat Noir’s sudden change in behavior. This is exactly why romance and fighting crime shouldn’t go together, she muses. She makes a mental note to leave such thoughts away from the battlefield in order to keep her focus on saving Paris and not have something like what happened last night happen again.

Before she can continue thinking on the matter, she hears the bell ring, signaling the start of class. She halfheartedly listens to the teacher lecture them about a new physics concept (a topic she and Adrien had already covered yesterday) when suddenly, a piece of folded paper lands in front of her. She looks around and spots Adrien waving sheepishly at her.

Unfolding the piece of paper carefully, Marinette tilts her head and starts to read it.  _Sorry about yesterday again. If I take you out on a real date, will you forgive me?_  A crudely drawn Adrien stick figure with a superhero cape is carrying a stick figure of herself. She giggles softly at the horrible drawing. Adrien isn’t as perfect as he seems, she thinks. Even he has his own faults. But she learned that yesterday when they were opening up with each other.

There were so many different little facts that she had learned about Adrien that she still remembers, as if they were all etched into her mind permanently. He speaks a good amount of Chinese just like her even with a lack of Chinese roots. (His accent is basically spot-on too.) He knows how to fence and has been practicing ever since he was young. His birthmark is on the small of his back. His favorite color is black. He really wants a pet dog, or basically any kind of pet that doesn’t eat cheese. Just about everything she could imagine of asking him, she knows the answer to, and she has them all memorized in her head.

Even though they haven’t been dating for that long, she feels like she knows him well enough to trust him with her life. Maybe, just maybe, she should tell him her secret identity…?

She shakes her head in immediate disapproval. No, no, it’s still not the right time. It could be months, even years, for her to finally gain the courage to tell him her secret identity. Asking him out is a million times easier than having to admit that she’s risking her life every day for the safety of Paris. She imagines he wouldn’t react very well to the prospect of her dwindling her own safety for the sake of everyone else’s safety every day.

With her non-dominant hand, she begins (or rather, attempts to) start scribbling down a response to her boyfriend.  _A date sounds great! Excuse the rhyme._  Seems legible enough, she thinks. She ponders for a second before continuing her scribbles, drawing herself in a superhero cape carrying a blushing Adrien. Thanks to her constant sketching of fashion ideas, she realizes her drawing doesn’t look half bad, especially for something that was drawn in her left hand. As a matter of fact, she’s actually very proud of it.

She discretely throws the piece of paper towards Adrien’s table, but unfortunately she misses and it hits the back of Adrien’s neck instead. Whispering an oops to herself, she watches as the blond boy grabs the back of his neck before he starts feeling around. She sees him find the piece of paper in his chair, and he opens it, eyes glued to the scrap of paper. She then hears quiet laughter from him as he lifts his hand up to give her a thumbs up.

She returns the gesture comfortably, her lips turning upward with barely a hint of awkwardness in them. Adrien turns around again and starts mouthing some words, and for some reason, Marinette is hit with a splash of déjà vu. She doesn’t understand it herself and the feeling is hard to ignore, but nonetheless, she tries to concentrate on Adrien’s lips.

Adrien’s… lips…

Her face heats up from thoughts of kissing those soft-looking lips—and suddenly, all of the weird déjà vu feelings vanish and are replaced by daydreams of kissing Adrien, Adrien kissing her, the two kissing each other…

_“How about tomorrow after school?”_  he finally whispers when Marinette isn’t responding. She snaps out of her reverie and begins to nod in approval, smiling at him once more. Then, a thought strikes her.

Oh goodness…

Would a date mean their first lip-to-lip kiss?

 

* * *

 

Her right hand still hurts from the poisoned needle, and she knows it’s visible in her face from the way she winces and grits her teeth every time Chat Noir so much as tries to touch her hand, which he unfortunately is doing a lot of in order to properly examine it and make sure it’s healing properly.

“I don’t think you’re in any condition to fight any time soon,” he says bluntly, gently putting her hand down. “I’ll take over for a while. You get some rest.”

“But will you be okay?”

“C’mon, you’re worried about me? Have you seen these guns?” He starts flexing and she can’t help but giggle, mostly out of relief that he’s acting like her little kitty again.

Wait,  _her_  little kitty?

No, no. She disapproves of this thought. She begins to backtrack but ends up staring at her partner, glossing over his lean curves and surprisingly toned arms (though she’ll never admit that to him). She gulps nervously.

“Ladybug… are you… are you blushing?”

She blinks in confusion and feels her cheeks, which are surprisingly very hot. Quickly, she turns to look the other way and yells out a strong and defiant  _no_ , crossing her arms over her chest. Chat Noir only tip toes around her and starts looking at her with a cheeky, Cheshire-like grin. “You are!” he points out with a little too much excitement. He coughs at that, but his toothy grin remains. “You are. You really are.”

“So what if I am? You don’t know what I’m blushing about.” She turns the other way again, only to be followed by her partner so they come face-to-face once again.

He gives her a small pout. “You were staring at me though, my Lady.”

At that, she could feel her cheeks warm up even more.  _My Lady_. She hasn’t heard that in a while. It brings back a lot of memories of the flirtatious side of Chat Noir, a side of him that she hasn’t seen in what seems like forever. But maybe it’s back?

Oh, why does she care?

“Don’t hold your breath, kitty cat,” she says in a teasing tone, poking his nose. “I was thinking about my boyfriend. We’re having a date tomorrow.”

“Fancy that! My girlfriend and I are having a date tomorrow as well. Maybe we can go on a double date?”

“In your dreams,” she scoffs, horrified at the idea of meeting a civilian Chat Noir. What would he be like? Unkempt hair, probably doesn’t even dress up for the occasion… She snickers to herself at the thought that his date would be horrified at the way Chat Noir is really like. Maybe she’ll dump him, she muses, and then...

_And then what?_

And then nothing! She internally screams. Who keeps messing around in her thoughts? She wants nothing to do with Chat Noir except on a purely professional, superhero level, and that’s final!

Chat Noir interrupts her thoughts with a cool, suave voice, “I’m gonna sweep her off her feet tomorrow, and then tell her those three magic words and woosh…” He makes a motion with his hands and looks down on Ladybug. She’s laying on her back now, the tiles of the roof slightly digging into her back though she doesn’t seem to mind them too much.

“A kitty like you can’t sweep anyone off their feet,” she taunts. “I bet she won’t tell you back those three words. I bet she doesn’t even like you back.”

Hearing the words come out of her mouth pains her as much as the pain she sees flash against Chat Noir’s green eyes, now livid. She slaps her forehead, ashamed at herself for stooping so low, and opens her mouth to begin her apology. “Look, Chat, I’m so—“

But before she can even finish her apology, Chat Noir gives her one final look and leaps away, and all she can see is his figure fading away. She’ll never forget the indignant look in his eyes, aimed specifically at  _her_.

That night, she cries herself to sleep.


	4. Sealed with a Kiss

When he comes back home, he is in a fit of rage. He is used to Ladybug’s constant teasing, and they are well deserved from his past constant flirtation, but talking about Marinette in such a mean-spirited way is going too far. He grabs his smartphone and quickly scrolls through to find his girlfriend’s name, replacing the ladybug emoticon with a red heart instead. Then, he sighs and angrily throws his phone down on his bed, then throws a couple pillows across the room, knocking over several picture frames but not caring about the repercussions of his actions in the slightest.

“Calm down, kid,” his kwami, Plagg, says in his snide voice. Though, they have a hint of worry in them. “This isn’t the end of the world.”

“But she insinuated that Marinette doesn’t love me! She doesn’t even know her!” He quickly adds, “ _I_  know her very well, and I trust that her feelings for me are genuine.”

“You guys haven’t even been dating for that long. Do you really know her that well?”

“ _Yes_ ,” came his defiant reply, seething with venom, which was somehow enough to keep Plagg uncharacteristically silent for the rest of the night.

 

* * *

 

 

Adrien can’t look away. Marinette is just absolutely stunning today. Instead of her usual black cardigan and baby pink jeans, she is donning a collared, sleeveless white top with a flower print skirt that reaches just above her knees which are covered by long black tights. A pair of white flats with ribbons cover her small feet, and her nails are even colored a sheer light pink, glistening under the sun. What takes Adrien’s breath away, however, is her face and her hair. Her eyelashes are dark and curled, her cheeks flushed, her hair is let down and he can see the slight curls at the ends of her dark locks, and her lips… Oh, those scrumptious lips… They’re smeared with a light, translucent, sparkling gloss, making them look more kissable than usual.

“My lady,” he breathes out slowly, feeling rather inadequate in his usual attire. “You’re absolutely gorgeous.”

“Th-thanks,” she stutters. “You’re gorgeous too. I mean, handsome! I mean, you look… nice…”

“I can’t possibly compete with your beauty,” he says with a laugh. He then extends an arm towards her and gently grabs her hand, placing a small kiss atop it. However, instead of feeling the softness of her pale skin, he is instead introduced to a tangle of hurriedly wrapped bandages.

He eyes the bandages carefully. “What happened to your hand?”

“A dog bit it the other day!” she answers rather too quickly. He continues to eye her bandaged hand, realizing in an instant several things: 1) the bandages are loosening up, showing that they are a couple days old, 2) she’s hiding her hand from him a little too conspicuously, and 3) that’s the same hand that the needle from the akuma dug through Ladybug’s hand. He wants to give the girl the benefit of a doubt, but the more he stares at her, the more his doubt increases. Is she… is she lying to him?

“Marinette,” he begins, almost too sternly. He breathes in deeply to prepare himself before saying any more. “Please tell the truth.”

“I…” She diverts her eyes away from him and to the ground, and in that instant he realizes that she is lying to him, and it causes his stomach to bubble up painfully and leaves a bad taste in his mouth. “I’m sorry, Adrien.”

“Why would you?” He knows he sounds hurt, and the fact that Marinette looks at him with saddened eyes hurts him even more.

“It’s too hard to explain. Can we please just go on the date and deal with this later?” she pleads, almost as if she was begging on her knees. Tears start collecting at the corners of her eyes as she tries to hurriedly blink them away before they start dripping down.

“Why would you lie to me?” he inquires in a quiet voice, but then does a double take as his motherly-like instincts kick in, empathy hitting him like a truck. “P… please don’t cry, Marinette…”

“I’m… sorry…” she squeaks out in-between sobs.

Panic starts to surge throughout his body. “N-no! It’s okay, Marinette. Really. We’ll talk about this later, okay? Let’s just enjoy ourselves for now.”

She nods in agreement. He gives her a soft smile regardless of how he’s feeling right now—torn by knowing Marinette is lying to him and that the lie is so grand that she doesn’t want him to know, hurt by the way she looks at him sadly, secrecy shining through her blue eyes. It tears him up inside knowing that his shy Marinette doesn’t trust him enough to tell him whatever her little secret is, and it makes him fidget the rest of the way to the nice, little café they had planned to go to.

The walk is silent with neither of them bothering to look at each other, but he still feels her closeness, feeling the warmth she emanates. He wants to hug her and tell her that he wants everything to go back to normal and that he’ll never doubt her again, but he quickly realizes that would be a lie, because all this is still troubling him and he doesn’t know what to do about it. All he wants to do is ask her what really happened to her hand and why exactly she wouldn’t want him to know.

When they reach the café, he opens the door to him like a gentleman. She mutters a thanks before entering, and he follows suit, sitting down in a booth with her. The waitress comes by and takes their order, Adrien having to order for his girlfriend because she’s still a sniffling mess. When the waitress leaves, Adrien looks at Marinette, looking at her dark locks and her puffy blue eyes.

“Marinette, it’s okay, alright? I’m not mad.” He breathes out slowly. “Okay, maybe a little, but we can work this out, can’t we?”

“I…” Her voice is cracked, broken. “I don’t know…”

“Marinette, we can’t keep secrets from each other. All I want to know is what happened to your hand. It can’t be that bad, right?”

“It is!” Her hands are on the table now, her face twisted into a mixture of trepidation and frustration. “You… you won’t like the truth. Trust me, Adrien.”

His eyes narrow in the same kind of fear and frustration evident in Marinette’s light blue eyes. “How can I trust you when it seems like you don’t trust me?” he yells out, causing the whole café to quiet down. He suddenly cowers into his seat, trying to regain his composure. “I… I want you to trust me, Marinette,” he says quietly, grabbing her hands from across the table. “I want us to work out. I want, oh so badly, for us to be together for a long time.”

“I want that, too Adrien. I…” Her eyes shift away from him and to the table now, her hands quivering. “I trust you. I really do. I’m sorry for not telling you the truth. I… I was attacked by an akuma. A needle pierced through my hand. That’s what happened.” She quietly adds, “I didn’t want you to worry about me. That’s why I lied to everyone, not just you.”

His frustrated face slowly morphs into one of anger—for himself. He was so preoccupied with staying by Ladybug’s side that he had completely forgotten to check up on Marinette, and now the overbearing feeling of guilt rests in his chest, for he wasn’t able to protect his girlfriend—his one true love—just because… just because he didn’t want to leave his past love’s side.

Nothing pains him more than knowing he could’ve prevented something like this from happening. He could have even prevented Ladybug from getting hurt in the first place, but when she pushed him away during the fight, he couldn’t react fast enough to help her dodge the needle attacks. He was so shocked at that moment, so filled with many emotions, that he felt frozen in time, only being able to stare as his partner expertly dodged all but one of the needles.

It was fortunate for him that he was able to react afterwards, that he was able to get her out of the battlefield before the akuma was able to reconstruct more needles; but now, he realizes he hadn’t done his job as a proper superhero. He let his sentiments for Ladybug cloud his mind, putting his need of wanting to save her above the rest of Paris’s safety.

And for that, he is ashamed.

“I’m sorry,” he says, traces of remorse in his voice. “If I could’ve been there for you…”

“It’s not your fault, Adrien. There wasn’t anything that could’ve been done.” She gives him a smile, small and radiant, and in that instant he feels like everything is suddenly better, and the shame he feels slowly dissipates.

The two enjoy their meals in a comfortable peace, neither talking but both looking at each other with happy eyes. When they are finished and he pays (Marinette had insisted that they split the check, but Adrien was too quick for her and ended up paying the entire tab with a smirk on his face the entire time), the two go outside, feeling the cool autumn breeze against their cheeks. Adrien wraps his arms around his girlfriend, pulling her into his chest. He can feel her soft, even breathing against him as he nuzzles his nose into her hair, smelling sweet strawberry shampoo.

He then brings his face down to her level, basking in her beautiful shock. Even though he has no idea when it comes to romance, his instincts are telling him it’s the right time. In fact, they’re screaming at him to just do it already, because they’re tired of him waiting all this time for one simple little peck.

So he obliges and brushes his lips against her glossed ones, smearing the translucent gloss in the process against the tips of her lips and against his own. He feels her breath against his lips, making him crave to go further and explore more of Marinette, but—

His body tenses as he gently pushes her away before he can begin an instinctual ravage on her. Marinette looks at him oddly, all the while blushing like crazy, but he just waves it off, laughing nervously.

“I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, of course. See you, Adrien.”

When she leaves, he starts licking his lips, tasting the vanilla flavor of the gloss. He completely melts.

 

* * *

 

All alone, Chat Noir leaps across from building to building, checking for any sign of the akuma-ridden girl from a few days ago. Unfortunately, it has been days since he has seen any sign of her. He has come to realize that otherwise, there hasn’t been an attack lately either. Though, that very fact makes his skin crawl; just what exactly is Hawkmoth up to, he wonders to himself.

There’s no sign of Ladybug anywhere, and he feels relieved for several reasons. He is still a bit angry at her for insinuating that Marinette doesn’t love him. He’s also still worried about her hand and hopes that she is resting enough to have it heal. He knows he wouldn’t be able to get rid of the akuma himself, so in a sense he really does need her to heal up soon before anything bad happens.

He stops in the rooftop of a bakery—the Dupain-Cheng bakery—and can smell a faint hint of the aromatic pastries from below. He wants to sneak in and surprise Marinette in her room, but he doesn’t want to creep her out either, so he just settles to laying down in the patio, looking up at the starless Parisian sky.

All of a sudden, he hears footsteps beside him. He turns to his side and sees red-clad shoes next to him. He looks up and finds a certain dark-haired superhero looking down at him, her eyes hidden by her bangs.

“Ladybug, what are you doing here?” he questions, shocked.

“I just wanted to see the stars,” she says quietly (what stars? he thinks to himself), laying down next to him. “And I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry. I wasn’t being fair to you. I was just…” She pauses. “I was just…”

“Just…?”

“J-jealous, okay?” she hisses in frustration.

He feels a small smile crack in his face. “Jealous?”

“Of your girlfriend,” she admits, ashamed. “I just always thought I’d always be your lady and I took that for granted, and now I’m not anymore…”

He can’t believe what he is hearing. Ladybug… _jealous_? He must be dreaming. He has to pinch himself awake. This can’t possibly be real. This is just too surreal. He has to—

Wait a second, Adrien, he thinks to himself. What about Marinette? His sweet Marinette who he had promised himself he would be faithful to forever…

And then there’s his past love Ladybug who had just admitted being jealous of her…

Snapping him out of his thoughts, Ladybug says, “Chat, I want to do something to you. So I can figure all this out. Don’t freak out, okay?”

“Um, okay?” He looks at her in confusion, wondering what exactly she wants to do to him. But when he sees her close her eyes and lean forward to him, he understands what exactly she wants to do.

And he lets her do it.

And suddenly they’re both entangled in each other in a heated kiss, full of clumsy teeth knocking against each other and hands fumbling around, not knowing where to grip onto. Ecstasy surges throughout the entirety of his body, heat crawling up all over, and then they finally let go of each other, haggard breaths on each other’s cheeks.

Ladybug isn’t looking at him and neither is Chat Noir. The realizations of what had just happened hadn’t caught up to them yet, for they were stuck in a moment of bliss and fantasies relived.

The black-clad superhero licks his lips after a few more heavy breaths, tasting a faint touch of vanilla—and all of a sudden it hits him like the way a villain had punched him in the face once, really, really hard, and sent him flying across the room. And when he stares at her more, staring at those blue eyes that shine like the shallow ocean floor, staring at her dark pigtails which had loosened up, he suddenly knew and everything made sense.

He had just cheated on Marinette.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story has strayed away from my original storyline quite a bit, but I don't know. I still kinda like it. Though, I think I'll be taking a short break from this in order to organize my thoughts about the plot. I'm thinking of writing some other things in the meantime, probably just one-shots.


	5. Tough Love

When Ladybug retracts from the kiss, she tastes a familiar hint of peppermint that she distinctly remembers from this afternoon. She peers through at Chat Noir with half-lidded eyelids, noticing the unmistakable way his green eyes flash in renewed happiness and the way his lips curl up in a sly smirk. There’s no mistaking it; that’s exactly how Adrien Agreste is.

In that moment, she recoils in confusion. Chat Noir couldn’t possibly be her  _boyfriend_. They acted completely different. Her perfect Adrien couldn’t be someone as flirty… as silly… as cocky as Chat Noir. It just didn’t make any sense to her.

Except, the more she thinks about it, the more it all comes together. From the way they walk to the sound of their voice, from the way her heart flutters every time she’s around either of them, it’s hard to deny that Chat Noir and Adrien Agreste are one and the same—and she, unmistakably, fell for both of them.

She wants to laugh at that. She really does, because it’s funny and ironic all the same. But all she can do is frown, because even if they are the same person, it’s difficult for her to accept them as such. If they are the same person… then who exactly is the real Adrien Agreste? Is Chat Noir the façade, or is the picture perfect Adrien the fake? Are they different sides of his personality, or are they both just a figment of the imagination?

And the kiss. Even though she’s technically kissing her boyfriend, she can’t help but feel dirty for even thinking about the prospect of kissing another guy. She blames her befuddled actions on the possible poison residue from the akuma attack a couple days ago. Some of the poison must still be lingering in her system and is making her delirious. She just  _has_  to be going crazy, to be acting in a way she wouldn’t normally have, to be in this deluded situation, to be even more confused with her feelings than before.

Chat Noir—err, Adrien?—is looking at her worriedly now, panic evident in his eyes. “Ladybug, I—“ He pauses, pursing his lips. “I… This…  _This_  is so wrong.”

“I’m sorry,” she says almost too nonchalantly. She doesn’t know what to do anymore. Should she just assume Chat Noir and Adrien Agreste are the same person and just tell him she found out his identity? Or should she keep it to herself?

Her head is starting to hurt. She needs to lie down and think.

Chat Noir-slash-Adrien is frowning at her now. “I… I have to go. I’m sorry. We can talk about this later. I just need some time to think and register all… this.”

Well, she does too, as a matter of fact.

Though, she never answers back, and so he leaves without another word, now a blurry speck under the blank night sky. She goes back down to her room and plops on her bed, cold and tired and just plain confused.

What exactly drew her to Adrien himself in the first place?

He has everything: good looks, wealth, a kind soul. What’s not to love? But as she thinks, she realizes this picturesque life isn’t really him. She has been putting him up on a pedestal, looking up to the boy like some sort of prized possession. He was merely a toy in her eyes, something pretty to be played with and show off to other people to. Her love for him wasn’t genuine and was merely a weird, stalker-like obsession that was sugar coated as one true love.

She never really loved Adrien to begin with.

Chat Noir, on the other hand, was a bit irritating at first, but he came to be known as loyal, trustworthy, and a good friend. Her closest friend, probably. She would trust him with her life. She always thought of him as a brother of sorts, looking out for each other and sharing playful banter amongst each other. She had loved him. But her romantic “love” for him was merely driven by jealousy.

So, she never really loved Chat Noir either. Not in a romantic sense.

She didn’t love either of them. Yet, she was dating one and kissed both in the same day. She was toying with their feelings without realizing it.

In that instant, she never realized how horrible of a person she was.

 

* * *

 

The moment she sees Adrien in class, he looks away as if in shame and avoids her gaze the entire time.

She has been wondering when exactly she would tell him about her revelation. She wants to tell him as soon as possible, but it also makes her stomach want to hurl and do flips when she even thinks about telling him. She isn’t sure how he would react to the revelation either. She knows Chat Noir loves Ladybug and that Adrien loves Marinette, so everything should be fine and dandy on his end. As for her…

The bell rings, signaling the end of class. She sees the blond boy give her a sheepish grin and run outside in a flash, leaving her a little too annoyed for his own good. Nino is looking at her with so much confusion that it looks like he would almost explode from trying to think about it, and Alya is nudging her, asking her what’s going on between them and if there was anything she could help with.

“It’s nothing,” Marinette says quietly, rushing to get her belongings together to chase after Adrien. She has made her mind: she is going to tell him as soon as she gets the chance to talk to him. As soon as all her stuff was in her bag, she bids farewell to her friends and shoots out of the door, searching for the blond boy as if her life depended on it.

After what seemed like a prolonged time of searching, she finds him outside, sitting under a tree. He looks up with a saddened expression but doesn’t move, instead just looking down at his knees.

Marinette skids up to him, looking down at him once she was in front of him. It’s the first time she has ever looked down on him, she thinks.

“Adrien—“

“Marinette, I’m sorry, but I cheated on you!” he suddenly blurted out, standing up. He now towers over her, making her crane her head upward in order to keep their eye contact. Adrien places his hands on her shoulders, pulling her closer. The innocence in his green eyes is overwhelming. “I’m so sorry, Marinette. I’m so ashamed with myself. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have just sat there and let her kiss me. I should’ve—“

She places a slim finger on his lips to calm him down, and like an obedient puppy, he shuts up and is now all ears for her, his eyes big with surprise. Marinette lets out a short sigh. “Adrien, it’s okay. Because you know what? _I’m Ladybug,_ and I know you’re  _Chat Noir_.”

His face stretched out in shock, his eyes bugged out and his mouth hanging wide open. But then it all washes away into relief and, most of all, overexcitement. “So I didn’t cheat on you?”

“Nope.”

“That’s… that’s wonderful.” He starts laughing, first softly and then turning into loud guffaws. “I… I can’t believe this. My two dream girls are one and the same. I’ve never had this much luck before…” He is all smiles now, not being able to contain his merriment at the new information. He is hugging her now, a big, tight, bear hug, and she hugs back, restrained.

She feels bad. He is so happy, and yet, she feels empty.

“There’s something else, Adrien…”

He cocks an eyebrow but is otherwise still smiling, grinning from ear to ear. “What is it, princess?”

“I’m breaking up with you.”

 

* * *

 

She ran away before he could react. Like a coward, she never looked back, not wanting to look at his pained expression lest she start crying herself. But it was for the best. She didn’t want to keep fooling him into thinking her feelings were genuine. They were so believable that she even fooled herself into thinking her own feelings for him were genuine.

She laughs coldly at that. Her phone has been ringing constantly throughout the rest of the day. She knows it’s Adrien and never even bothers to peek at the messages. She buries herself in her room, not wanting to talk to anyone right now.

Unfortunately, her kwami has different ideas.

“Marinette, what’s wrong?” Tikki asks in her high-pitched voice.

“I… I don’t think I’ve loved Adrien… Chat Noir… whoever he is at all.” She sighs. “I broke up with him, and he’s been calling me all this time and I’m just being a coward and ignoring him.”

“Marinette…” The red kwami floats toward her, landing in the palm of her hands. “You should talk to him. Figure all this out.”

“I… can’t. I’m… scared.” Tears start collecting in the corners of her eyes. She tries holding them back but they begin to cascade down her flushed cheeks, slowly staining then. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I completely messed up everything. I just want to start all over… I wish none of this ever happened. I wish I was just blissfully unaware of everything again. I just wish…”

“Then talk to him,” Tikki says soothingly, rubbing her head against Marinette’s fingers.

“He probably hates me now. I… I don’t think I can even handle hearing his voice. What would it sound like? Sad? Mad? I can’t handle either. I just can’t, Tikki.”

“You still clearly care about him, though. You need to be as courageous as Ladybug and talk to him.”

She buries her face into the pillow, wanting to just disappear. “Not even Ladybug has enough courage for this…”

 

* * *

 

Morning patrol was unusual for her, especially on Saturday mornings, but she didn't want to take a chance to bump into Chat Noir-slash-Adrien any time soon, if ever again. She decides to plainly put all thoughts about him aside and focus on the current task at hand: finding the stitched-up girl that had attacked them earlier this week.

Her right hand still tingles, and she tries her best not to stress it too much. Nonetheless, she feels like she's in fighting condition again and is ready to take down the akuma whenever she finds her. 

After hours of searching, there remains no sign of the akuma-ridden victim anywhere. She decides to call it quits for today and promptly goes home, checking her long-forgotten phone which is still constantly vibrating with new text messages and phone calls.

She looks through the list of all the messages and phone calls sent to her and most are from Adrien. A couple were repeats, but all seemed desperate and made her heart sink.

Marinette?

Marinette, please talk to me?

Please? I'm not angry.

I'm not angry at you, Marinette.

Please just talk to me.

Please, Marinette, I'm begging you.

She sighs and clicks on the voice mails, listening intently, each single voice mail stabbing at her heart.

“Hey... This is Adrien... I don't know why you broke up with me but I just wanted to let you know that I want to talk about it. I'll do anything to get you back, Marinette. Anything. Please trust me and call me back. Bye.”

“Adrien again. Please, I want to work this out. Believe me when I say I want us to work out. I want us to be together for a long time. Please talk to me.”

“Sorry I'm spamming your voice mail and text messages but I'm begging on my knees right now. Please, just please oh please, talk to me, Marinette. I want to know what’s going on. I want to be there for you.”

“Marinette, I'm not angry at you. I just want to know what's going on. I'm always here to listen to whatever is going on in your mind, boyfriend or not.”

“I've decided to respect your privacy and your decision. I'll stop bothering you now. Just know that I'll always love you regardless. Bye, my Lady.”

She throws her phone down, sitting at the edge of her bed with her face buried in her hands. Maybe she really should call him…

She picks her phone back up again and presses Adrien’s name, preparing herself for the hardest, most awkward phone conversation she’ll ever have in her entire life.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I wrote down a plotline but didn't like it so I scrapped it. I'm just gonna go with the flow on this story like what I've been doing. Hopefully it's not corny or anything. I always worry that my multichapters are too slow or too silly or whatever. I'm honestly really bad at multichapters cause I never stick to the initial plotline I have in mind, but oh well.
> 
> The pace will start picking up as of right now, so you guys better hold on to your seats! It'll be a bumpy ride!


End file.
